[ Page 1 of 11 ]

Advertising supplement provided The Window & Door Manufacturers Association

Continuing Education Use the following learning objectives to focus your study while reading this month’s ARCHITECTURAL RECORD / AIA Continuing Education article. Learning Objective: After reading this article, you will be able to: 1. Understand the difference between performance vs. prescriptive design standards. 2. Identify interior wood architectural door types based on where they are to perform within the facility. 3. Become familiar with the new distinct performance levels or grades for these doors which are crucial in their overall specification.

A major overhaul to an industry interior architectural door standard—I.S. 1A-2004 Industry Specification for Architectural Wood Flush Doors—is ready, and its focus is on performance-driven specifications.

Application-driven construction performance standards are the wave of the future, and they’re here now for many different building products. For the door, window and skylight industry, performance standards focus on the built environment in which the product will be used and the move to performance standards versus prescriptive design specifications is an ongoing strategy. It’s a win-win for the architect and everyone else in the market that purchases and uses architectural wood flush doors, but especially, the end-user, who can rely on the product to serve the facility well over the long haul.

Exterior products have always been under close scrutiny by the architect, specifier, designer and end-user just because of their sheer nature. They’re visible and they play an important role in the overall efficiency and longevity of the building. Now, early in the construction pre-planning stages of a project, building products like interior architectural wood flush doors have also taken their rightful place as products that make a difference in the scope of the entire building project envelope.

 

Wood flush doors have established themselves as the pinnacle of quality door manufacturing. Source: Eggers Industries, Neenah, Wis.

In order for the architect to plan, design and specify commercial interior doors correctly, they need the proper tools. They need to know which door is right for the type of environment in which it will operate. It’s a simple fact of life that a door that is in a facility that experiences heavy use on a daily basis must be able to perform at a higher level than a door which has little or infrequent use. Within a facility, the use factor of interior doors will vary, depending on the location itself. That’s the real world and that’s how doors must be manufactured and specified as well and that’s what I.S. 1A does.